The Friend from Ord Mantell
by JMB4-01
Summary: Private Farn (now promoted to Sergeant Farn) runs into an old friend from Ord Mantell. (No other good way to summarize that I could think of)(Not a romance)


**Ok, so here's the scoop. Frankly I don't think that there is enough player/NPC interaction fanfics out there. So here's some interaction between my female Republic Trooper and Private Farn.**

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" _If you want something you've never had, you must do something you've never done." –_ Thomas Jefferson.

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Sergeant Farn, the title still sounded a bit odd to the young soldier. About a year and a half after Virk's court-martial Private Farn had received a message from the Republic military commander at Fort Garnik informing him of his promotion to Sergeant. In addition to the new rank he was also given command of a small squad of soldiers. The initial shock of the new position, even if all he did was lead patrols, quickly turned to annoyance when he realized that pursuing the position would require him to remain on Ord Mantell, a planet he was not overly fond of.

So here he was, two months after his promotion. Sitting in his small office going through paper work. If there was something Farn didn't like, it was writing forms and filing documents. And so he sat, staring at a particularly boring form concerning ammunition requisitions when he was broken out of his self-induced stupor by his second in command, a corporal by the name of Aryon.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

"Yeah, what is it?" replied Farn, disinterested.

"There's an officer outside, a major. Says she's here to see you."

Farn had to restrain himself from jumping out of his chair. Here to see him! Had he done something wrong? He certainly didn't think so. He had done his best to make sure he was up to standard at all times. So what in the galaxy would a major want from him?

"Sir, is everything alright?"

At Aryon's remark Farn realized that he had been staring off into nowhere.

"Um, yes send her right in." He said in as much confidence as he could muster.

"Yes sir." Replied Aryon, before turning on his heel and striding out the door.

A few minutes later the major walked through the door. She wasn't exactly short, standing about 5'10 she radiated an air of cool confidence. The light from the overhead lamp gleamed off of her pristinely shined white and orange armor, accenting the Havoc symbol displayed proudly in the top right of her chest plate. His nervousness amplified by the realization of just who she represented, Farn immediately jumped to his feet and threw a salute with a sharp "Morning ma'am". She just chuckled lightly and returned his salute.

"Well no need to be so stiff Farn, sit down." She said in a cool deep voice, one that Farn could have sworn he had heard before.

"O-Of course ma'am." Said Farn, still trying to place the voice.

"Come on, Farn." She said as she yanked her spotless white helm. "Don't you remember me?"

Farn's eyes widened. The tan skin and rosy cheeks, the gleaming sapphire eyes, the chestnut brown hair pulled up on top of her head. And of course the warm kind smile that could make anyone feel happier.

"S-Sergeant?" stuttered Farn.

The light laugh that filled the room assured Farn he was correct. This was the Havoc squad recruit who had dealt with Virk and his cronies, who had managed to make Farn's life a living hell for the first few months he was on Ord Mantel.

"It's Major now actually, figured I'd drop in and visit. So, are you going to invite me to take a seat or not?" She said teasingly.

The next hour was spent in friendly small talk that ranged from the status of the warfront to favorite foods, although the first twenty minutes had been spent with the major trying to convince Farn to call her by her last name, Myree, instead of her rank. They were talking about the conflicts on Hoth when Farn's mood suddenly dropped.

"Personally, I think they should just let the Imps take the darn place. It isn't good for much of anything except for wasting resources." Stated Myree.

"Still, fighting Imperials on Hoth has got to be better than sitting on this ball of rock waiting for something to happen." Mumbled Farn, his face drooping.

"Oh, come on now Farn, this post is as important as any." Myree retorted.

"How? There are thousands of Republic troops out there in the galaxy fighting for what's right, and I'm just sitting here doing nothing. If command had any sense they would send more soldiers to the front lines instead of leaving them on useless back-waters like Ord Mantell." Farn said, frowning.

The corners of the Majors lips turned down into a small frown. "Farn, how about we go for a walk." Although it appeared to be a simple suggestion, it seemed more like an order to Farn. And so, following the Majors example, he stood, straightened his service jacket and made for the door.

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They walked in silence. Farn listened intently to the sounds of Fort Garnik that surrounded them. As they passed, many soldiers would stop and salute them. And although they were probably saluting the Major, her being the higher rank and all, Farn liked to think they were saluting him too. He briefly acknowledged that he was walking beside a hero of the republic, but he quickly dismissed it. As they had been talking back in his office she had insisted that she 'didn't want anyone bowing down to her as if she were a god, just because she did her job.'

Farn was pulled out of his musings when they stopped by a railing marking the edge of the fort. Myree leaned almost casually on her forearms and looked out over the gray landscape, although her usual smile was missing.

"You're familiar with the sacking of Corusant, right?" She asked not unkindly.

"Well, yeah." Farn replied cautiously.

"Do you know why the empire made it all the way there?"

"Um, well." Farn wasn't ready for the question. He wasn't exactly an expert tactician neither did he study the sacking of the Republic capital.

Turning away from the dullness that was the Ord Mantell country side, she looked at and addressed Farn, "Then I'll explain. During the few months before the attack both sides of the war were getting desperate. It had gone for too long and the Republic and Empire where locked in a standstill. Given that no one seemed to be winning any battles morale was getting low for everyone, and all the military leaders were desperately looking for a way to turn the tide. And so the Republic decided to move troops from the core worlds to larger conflicts throughout the Galaxy."

She paused for a bit to look up at the blue sky. Farn by this time had also taken to leaning against the railing, listening intently to what she had to say. It wasn't long before she began again.

"Unfortunately, that plan was what would lead to the attack. The Empire took full advantage of the Republics troop movement, moved their troops in quickly, and the rest is history." She shot him a look, her face taking on an expression that Farn couldn't quite place.

"Do you understand?" She asked suddenly.

Farn turned toward the ground. "If the Republic had posted more troops on the core worlds then the empire wouldn't have made it to Corusant."

Myree smiled. "Well, nothings know for sure but…" she looked toward the sky again. "It probably would've lessened the chances."

Neither one spoke for a few moments after that. Farn kept looking down, feeling slightly ashamed of himself for not knowing what caused the sacking, until he felt a gloved and armored hand reassuringly grip his shoulder.

He looked up to find Myree's smiling face looking straight at him. Her gleaming blue eyes shone kindness and compassion. Farn instantaneously new that it wasn't that big of a deal, and his own smile slowly made its way onto his face.

They spent the next few moments in comfortable silence, each of them pondering their own thoughts. It was broken by Myree asking a simple question.

"You ever been in combat before, Farn?"

It caught Farn off-guard, honestly he wasn't expecting to hear that one, and so he mumbled out a hesitant, "Um, n-no?"

Myree nodded a bit, her face holding a grim smile. "It isn't at all as glorious as the recruitment posters make it out to be. It can really change you."

She bowed her head and paused for a while. Which Farn spent contemplating her words, wondering just where she was going with this.

"You know there's a lot of reasons why people join the Republic Military. Fame and fortune, patriotism, adventure, revenge, the list goes on. I've even met a few people that joined up just for the sake of joining up. But no matter who they are, there's nothing that can ever prepare them for the first kill. The first time they look down the sights of the blaster and end up blowing half of someone's head off."

Myree seem to grow slightly older after she said this. The brightness of her face seemed to somewhat dim as she looked out over the black, rocky plains.

"I think it's the aftermath that's the worst though. When you take your first few shots your half way to being drunk off adrenaline, but when the battle's over, and you look out over a field, that's been turned black by blaster bolts and covered in bodies. It's nerve-racking."

She frowned, "And then there's when you come home. You hope, and expect that you can get a rest from thinking about the things you saw and did, but you're wrong. People always want to know about your experiences, what it was like to shoot a blaster, was it stressful, and there's always that one moron that wants to know how many people you killed."

Her head slowly swiveled to the side to see a patrol march by before she suddenly scoffed, catching Farn by surprise.

"It doesn't help that the public doesn't really seem to care about the horrors of the battles we fight. They only care about if we won or not. It's even worse when you're Spec-Ops, that way no one knows one way or the other." She Sighed, "Yep, it's a crappy way to live that's for sure."

It was once again Farn's turn to look toward the ground. Was she saying that he should leave the military? That didn't seem to make sense. After all from what he could tell she seemed like the type of person to tell someone to keep going, not to give up. In fact he was about to tell her so when in quick fluid movement, Myree pushed off the railing, stood up straight as a board, turned and looked Farn straight in the eye.

"But there's also this, Farn. There are a few million Republic soldiers out in this galaxy who know that fighting in this war is a glamourless, horrific, thankless job that needs to be done. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you were a sucker to want to fight in the war against tyranny." She finished with conviction.

They stood in silence for a few moments, which was inevitably broken by a controlled beeping coming from the Majors Helmet. Broken out of her confident pose she quickly glanced down at her armor headpiece and then back up at Farn, her infectious smile returning to her cherry countenance.

"Well Farn, it appears that I have a meeting to attend. It's been good catching up, keep in touch will ya?"

"Um, ah, s-sure Major." Farn managed to stutter out, completely taken off guard by her rapid change in attitude.

Myree's smile only grew, "Good man!" she said quickly, giving him a hearty slap on the back before marching off toward the Republic Command Center. However before she got very far she abruptly turned around and called back toward him, "And by the way. Nobody ever got to where they wanted to be by sitting around on a backwater dump like Ord Mantel, so how about putting in a request for a transfer?! See ya 'round the galaxy Farn!" And with that she turned on her heel and jogged out of sight.

Farn for his part was actually a bit dumbfounded. He was in deep thought over her serious words when, out-of-the-blue, a bright smile appeared on her face and she was off to...…somewhere, Farn didn't quite think about that part. He instead found himself reflecting upon what she said when she left, 'how about putting in a transfer'. The more Farn thought about it the better the idea sounded to him.

" _Why not indeed?"_ Farn though, and in a flash he was on his way back to his small office, _"I think I'll do just that."_

 **-The End-**

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 **Well, there it is. My, most likely horrible, attempt at a heart to heart between Farn and my OC. I'll eventually (AKA Hopefully AKA probably not for a few years) write a sort of sequel story to this about Farns adventures in the Republic Military.**


End file.
